# Blaine McKee

> Blaine McKee is the president and CEO of Walden Biosciences, a Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech building first-in-class medicines that go after the kidney itself instead of just slowing the road to dialysis. A chemist turned dealmaker turned operator, he launched Walden with a $51 million Series A in 2020 and now steers two clinical-stage programs: WAL0921, an anti-suPAR antibody, and WAL0623, a small-molecule dynamin stabilizer. Before Walden he spent 15 years at Genzyme and held top corporate-development roles at Shire and ImmunoGen, pairing an MIT organic-chemistry PhD with an MIT Sloan finance MBA.

- **Role:** President and Chief Executive Officer at Walden Biosciences
- **Organizations:** Walden Biosciences, VBI Vaccines (board), ImmunoGen, Shire, 480 BioMedical, Genzyme, Gilead Sciences
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. in Chemistry, Colorado State University, Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), M.B.A. in Finance, MIT Sloan School of Management
- **Known for:** Founded and leads Walden Biosciences, a clinical-stage kidney-disease biotech, Raised a $51 million Series A led by ARCH Venture Partners and UCB Ventures, Built a Kendall Square facility and grew the company past 25 employees

## Career timeline

- **early career** — Research Scientist at Gilead Sciences
- **~15 years** — Genzyme Corporation, culminating as SVP of Strategic Development for Oncology, Transplant and MS divisions
- **later** — EVP and Chief Business Officer at 480 BioMedical
- **later** — Head of Corporate Development at Shire
- **later** — EVP and Chief Business Officer at ImmunoGen
- **2020** — Launched Walden Biosciences as President and CEO with a $51M Series A
- **2024** — Completed Phase 1 of WAL0921 anti-suPAR antibody; showed proof-of-biology
- **2025** — Advancing Phase 2 basket study WAL0921-02 and initiating Phase 1 of small molecule WAL0623

## Achievements

- Founded and leads Walden Biosciences, a clinical-stage kidney-disease biotech
- Raised a $51 million Series A led by ARCH Venture Partners and UCB Ventures
- Built a Kendall Square facility and grew the company past 25 employees
- Advanced WAL0921 to a Phase 2 basket study in rare glomerular kidney diseases
- Held senior corporate-development leadership at Shire and ImmunoGen
- 15-year tenure at Genzyme rising to SVP of Strategic Development
- Serves on the board and chairs the Audit Committee of VBI Vaccines

## Latest updates

- **2024-12** — Walden completed Phase 1 of WAL0921 and reported proof-of-biology via rapid suPAR reduction
- **2025-01** — Advancing Phase 2 basket study WAL0921-02 in rare glomerular diseases and preparing Phase 1 of WAL0623

## Links

- Website: https://waldenbiosciences.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/blaine-mckee-387066a

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/blaine-mckee
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-14